Tasmania travel guide

At just over 300km both ways, Tasmania is like a pop-up book when you delve into it. And that is what this Tasmania travel guide aims to do. Open up what looks like a plain old island and reveal the splendid mountain ranges, the 19 national parks, the island idylls that are scattered around the coastline like emeralds and pearls. And the rainforest. There are few places in the world where such wilderness wonders are so accessible. They just keep popping out from nowhere.

Tasmania travel guide

2 MINUTE SUMMARY

Tasmania is like a Tardis. On the map it just looks like a small island, and indeed it is. Just 364km north to south, and 306km east to west. Yet Tassie will transport you to another world which feels almost lost in time. There are numerous ‘doors’ to open, with 19 national parks each offering different views and experiences. As well as many other wild places, coastal, mountainous or rainforest, to wander through and lust over.

Spend a week hiking through its heart on the Cradle Mountain Overland Track. Or bushwalking in the northernmost Narawntapu NP, where wombats and wallabies abound. You can spend weeks here and see a new view every day. Such as exploring an island off the island, of which you can take your pick. There are 334 of them. With a fascinating if fearsome history of convict settlements and colonial conflict, the island has travelled through time to a place of peace. And a place where one feels total freedom.

Tasmania is...

in love with its landscape. 45% of it is protected. And Tassies share their love 100%.

Tasmania isn't...

just somewhere to tag onto the end of a trip to Australia. That’s like going to the UK and throwing in Ireland for 24 hours. Take your time in Tassie.

Hello.If you'd like to chat about Tasmania or need help finding a holiday to suit you we're very happy to help.Rosy & team

Rated

Overrated

Underrated

NW Peninsula

The wild and wonderful North West is not only home to dramatic coasts overlooking the Southern Ocean but also eco eclectic beauty spots from the Tarkine Rainforest to King Island. Many people skip it out en route to Cradle Mountain – but don’t. King Island is the perfect surf ‘n turf destination. Great waves and fine food producers. And tackle The Tarkine by hiking or on a river cruise.

Islands & more islands

There are over 330 of them, some slightly developed, some divinely deserted. The east coast boasts wildlife and wilderness walking trails on Maria Island and the world’s only white wallabies on Bruny Island. Head north to Flinders or King for playing in the surf and eating the fine produce of the turf. Or to the west to melt over fairy penguins on Bonnet. Island idylls off one big island idyll. Tasmania never stops.

Tassie people

Not really like other Australians, their feeling of being linked to the land and inspired by conservation is infectious. People have a gentleness, even an eccentricity, and there is no sense of an elite because each does their bit as Tasmanian stewards. And yet, with a small population, they are not small minded; they live in such vast landscapes. Tassies look outwards - and always see the bigger picture.

So near, yet so far

What so many people don’t get about Tasmania is what’s just 10 minutes away. There are so many signposts off the highways it is hard to know which ones to pick but, once you do, it’s heaven in a heartbeat. Magnificent sites such as Mount Wellington, Leven Canyon or Donaghy’s Hill Lookout over Wild Rivers NP are so accessible. You don’t have to hike for days for great wonders of the world here.

Rated

Cradle Mt-Lake St Clair National Park

One of the stop offs on the classic circuit, but this is somewhere you could spend two weeks alone. And some do, starting on its famous Overland Track that takes you through rainforest or up to peaks such as Mount Ossa at 1,167m. At 65km long, it takes six days to walk from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair, with a diversion around the lake that gives you an excuse to spend another couple of days in the wilderness.

Bay of Fires

One of Tasmania’s most stunning walking trails, you can join a four day guided hike for 20km from beach to beach, beach camp to lodge. Camp, walk and swim, and if you want to rest your legs for a bit, throw in a bit of kayaking along the Ansons River. This place will set your world on fire.

Flinders Island

A very special place and a particular favourite with families, with safe, sublime beaches. As well as wildlife, hiking to the Strzelecki National Park’s peaks and the fascinating Aboriginal history and museum are all top things to do. Hop over to nearby and wholly Aboriginal Cape Barren Island to learn about their tragic indigenous history in Tasmania, and contribute to the local tourism economy.

Wildlife

It’s everywhere, and you don’t have to travel for miles. Tasmania does up close and personal creatures. Such as white wallabies, wombats, duck-billed platypus, and of course the endemic and inimitable Tasmanian devil. Spot dolphins in Macquarie Harbour and, for cuteness in the extreme, head to Bonnet Island to see fairy penguins. Whales migrate along the east coast May-July and Sept-Nov.

Overrated

Generic hotel chains

Generic chain hotels are not terribly Tassie. This is the land of boutique B&Bs where wallabies wander around, log fires warm your toes and wine comes from a vineyard just up the road. There is even a B&B run by a former Ritz Hotel chef. Tasmania is that sort of place. People come here, fall in love with it and create cozy cabins or love filled lodges so that they can share the nature, food and Tasmanian stories.

Summer only trips

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can only come here in summer. Although snow hits the highlands May-Sept, cross country skiing or trekking under winter blue skies is wonderful. And coasts and lowlands are still open to hiking all year round, with mild temperatures in the east. Hobart is uber cool in winter in the cultural way, the Dark MOFO festival a very hip happening at the city’s prestigious new art gallery.

Hiking without research

The National Parks website has good information on this. Don’t treat these like walks in the park, just because it isn’t mainland Australia. You are still walking in very wild places. Don’t walk alone, wear good boots, have layers, carry safety equipment, food and water, sleeping bag, maps, and log your walk at trailheads. Always check weather conditions, and turn back if in doubt.

Feeding wildlife

Wildlife is everywhere in Tasmania. Wallabies wander up to you and ‘roos will roam around the place. And birdlife is berserk. But tourists need to leave their ‘feeding ducks in the park’ mentality at home. It is strictly against all good conservation practices to interfere with the wildlife’s natural diet. So as much as you are tempted to give some of your pie to a possum, put it away.

Food, shopping & people

DISCOVER TASMANIA LIKE A LOCAL

Eating & drinking

Every region has something delicious in it. Bruny Island is famous for lamb. Huon Valley for fruit. King Island for cheese.

Fruit and vegetables are everywhere: farm shops, honesty stalls or pick your own. Big on apples and stoned fruit, Tasmania gives more than your five a day. With cherries on top.

Tasmanian pies are an institution. Made with pastry, they are filled with fish, meat, scallops and vegetables.

Curried scallop pies are a Tassie specialty. Just delicious.

Southern Tasmania and the Tamar Valley are famous for wine, as well as Freycinet and the Coal Valley near Hobart.

Local food is very local here. Instead of a Tassie tomato, it might be a Huon Valley tomato. Not just any old lobster but a Freycinet rock lobster, or King Island cheese.

Screen & scribe

With such extraordinary landscapes, wildlife and history, it is not surprising that Tasmania has caught the imagination of writers and filmmakers. Here are just a few to help you delve deeper:

Tasmanian Devil, A unique and threatened animal by David Owen David Pemberton (2005)
The Hunter, a novel by Julia Leigh (1999) adapted for film of the same name by Daniel Nettheim in 2011.
Tasmanian Mammals, A Field Guide by Dave Watts (1987)
In Tasmania, by Nicholas Shakespeare (2004)
For the Term of his Natural Life, by Marcus Clarke (1870)
In the shadow of the Thylacine, by Col Bailey (2013)

Gifts & shopping

Saffron and truffles are big on Tassie now, both of which make great gifts.

Leatherwood honey made from the eponymous rainforest tree is just superb.

There is fabulous woodcraft made from Huon pine, now protected, but a small number of producers have a licence to take fallen timber from rivers.

Tasmania’s merino wool is very famous. Hobart’s Salamanca market is a great place to buy gorgeous woollies.

If you need more hiking boots, buy them here. World famous Blundstones, or Blunnies for short, are from Tasmania. And the best.

Fast facts

I was so glad I left my boots at home. Bought myself a pair of real Tasmanian Blundstones when I got there. I like to think they kept me safe as I hiked their magnificent landscapes.

How much does it cost?

Bottle of local wine: £11

Punnet of cherries at honesty stall: £1.20

Half a dozen oysters: £2.20

National Park entry fees: £13, or buy a NP pass for £35, valid for two months.

Two-course pub lunch: £8.50

Arthur River Cruise: £55

A brief history of Tasmania

Tasmania’s history is a divided and dark one, but today it is a state that is united through a love for its landscapes, culture, food resources and island identity. There are three big issues that come up when people think about Tasmania’s past: the eradication of the Aboriginal people, its status as a land of convicts and colonists, and the intense destruction of its rainforest. Read more ▼

Tasmania’s Aboriginal past, & present
It is thought that Tasmania was once joined to mainland Australia, but that rising sea levels after the Ice Age formed the Bass Straits which separated the two. Consequently, it is thought that Aboriginal Tasmanians, or Palawa, have lived on these lands for as long as 40,000 years. Modern records of Aboriginal communities started with the arrival of European explorers, the first being Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642. By the time the British arrived in 1773, to exploit the seal and whaling resources, it is thought that there were as many as 10,000 Aborigines living on the island. Following what many now call an act of genocide, although that is still controversial, as well as exposure to non indigenous diseases, by the early 1800s there were only 500 Aboriginal people left.

This tragic period is known as the Black Wars, as local people sought to protect their lands and people when British colonists laid claim to them, but also as part of their quest to take local women as their own. After years of rebellion against the colonists, a small remaining population of Aborigines was finally exiled to Flinders Island, forbidden to maintain their traditional, spiritual culture, and most perished from new diseases.

Flinders Island was named after English sea-captain Matthew Flinders who first chartered these waters, and the Aboriginal settlement at the time was at Wybalenna, where an historic chapel still remains, as well as unmarked graves of those who perished. There were 47 survivors of these dreadful times, and they were shipped back eventually to Oyster Cove, near Hobart, the last one dying in 1905.

Today there are almost 26,000 people identifying themselves as Aboriginal Tasmanians. This brings with it complex politics of how one defines oneself as Aboriginal, as the majority are of mixed heritage. In the meantime, visit the museum on Flinders Island, as well as the nearby island of Cape Barren, now officially Aboriginal lands with a population of 70.

Colonists & convicts
In order to stop the French moving into Tasmania to control sealing and whaling industries, the British established a settlement in Hobart in 1804. A huge penal colony was subsequently set up at Port Arthur, and is now one of the island’s most visited and important historic sites. It was closed as prison in 1877. There were, over time, 65,000 convicts sent to Tasmania, accounting for 40% of those sent to Australia. Up until 1853, Tasmania was known as Van Diemen’s Land, named after the Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies Company who had sent its first explorer, Abel Tasman, there. But with so many negative associations from this time, the name was changed to Tasmania in 1856. By this time it was a colony in its own right, established in 1825. It became part of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.

Rainforest & environmental history
There has been a long standing environmental movement in Tasmania. The dam proposed for the Franklin River in 1978 was protested against until the project was finally stopped in 1983. Starting in the 1990s, there was a 30-year, bitter, and often violent battle between environmentalists and the forestry industry in Tasmania, fought both on the ground and up in the canopies while also causing huge rifts in Tasmanian society. It finally came to an end in 2012, when a peace deal was struck in the form of the Tasmanian Forestry Agreement (TFA) when the leading logging company withdrew. There have been recent parliamentary discussions of opening up sections of forest to logging and mining again, and the environmental movements are keeping a close eye. Meanwhile, natural destruction in the form of forest fires wiped out some of the ancient temperate forest. Although these are a natural occurrence, and have always been a feature of these forests, some trees such as the blackwood needing fire so that its seeds germinate, they are becoming more frequent with climate change. But recent forest fires only affected one per cent of forest, and in very remote, inaccessible areas.